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God loves the world; He created it with great love. God is the rightful Owner of this earth. As the crown of creation, God created man and He placed them - man and woman - Adam and Eve in Paradise. He instructed them to take care of the earth. He also gave them free will; they could choose to be obedient to Him. To test their obedience, God placed a special tree in the middle of Paradise: the tree of knowledge of good and evil. It was one tree among thousands of other trees and the only tree they were not allowed to eat from.

Obeying that one small commandment did not keep Adam and Eve. They succumbed to the temptation of the devil who challenged them to eat the fruit of that tree. And they did it! This was man's first sin. And it had catastrophic consequences.

The moment Adam and Eve sinned against God, the earth lapsed into darkness. The sun might still be shining as usual but God Himself had withdrawn. The open connection, the contact between God and man was gone. And the beautiful Creation from now on was under a curse (Read Genesis 3).

This is still true today. We live in a world where sin and death, suffering and sorrow rule the news. This will be so until a certain time. Jesus Himself said that Satan is currently the ruler of this earth, and we notice it. War, violence, strife but also destruction of God's magnificent creation are the order of the day. It is not only Satan, it is also man himself with his free will who is responsible for this misery. According to the Bible, no one can say he is free:

A way out

Right from the Fall, God promised a way out. The way out God gave in His own Son, Jesus Christ. He came to this earth, was born as Man, lived as Man but at the same time He was God. So God Himself came to live on earth among men. He shared in their trouble and suffering but without ever sinning Himself.

The Cross

As most know, Jesus died on the Cross. On Good Friday, we are particularly reminded of this. Although people crucified Him, He willingly laid down His life in death. Why did He do that?

This had to happen; there had to be an atonement for man's sin. God is loving but at the same time just. He does not condone sin; He does not look away when we sin. God is a holy God and with Him no sin can exist. He sees and fathoms all things. There is no way man can make it up to God by himself.

Man's debt to God is great, the price of the sacrifice for atonement was high, only God Himself could provide it: through the blood of His own Son.

To atone for man's guilt, blood had to flow because without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness:

Jesus died a terrible death, but death did not have the last word: After three days, He rose from the grave. He appeared to many people after that and went back to His Father in heaven forty days after His bodily resurrection. His followers watched Him being taken up to heaven in a cloud.

What is the way out for me?

The Bible says we can pass from the kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of God. In John 3, Jesus also says that a person must be born again to be part of God's Kingdom.

Do you know if you have been born again?

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

All have turned away, they have together become worthless;

there is no one who does good, not even one.

In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

Hebrews 9:22